Aspects relate to using a two-dimensional structure to form an embedded three-dimensional structure.
Electromechanical systems (EMS) include devices having electrical and mechanical elements, transducers such as sensors and actuators, optical components such as mirrors and optical films, and electronics. EMS devices or elements can be manufactured at a variety of scales including, but not limited to, microscales and nanoscales. For example, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices can include structures having sizes ranging from about a micron to hundreds of microns or more. Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) devices can include structures having sizes smaller than a micron including, for example, sizes smaller than several hundred nanometers. Electromechanical elements may be created using deposition, etching, lithography, and/or other micromachining processes that etch away parts of substrates and/or deposited material layers, or that add layers to form electrical and electromechanical devices.
The demand for planar micromachined inductors that provide high inductance and have a large quality factor (or Q-factor) has greatly increased due to the proliferation of magnetic driving MEMS applications, such as magnetic microactuators, microsensors, and micropower converter devices. Inductors are ubiquitous passive analog electronic components that are used in a myriad of power regulation, frequency control, and signal conditioning applications in a range of devices including personal computers, tablet computers, and wireless mobile handsets.
Real inductors have a finite Q-factor, meaning that in addition to storing energy in an induced magnetic field, they also dissipate energy through ohmic and magnetic losses. Moreover, inductors may require large physical dimensions (on the order of millimeters) in order to achieve inductance values greater than tens of nanohenries (nH). Some inductors are fabricated with cores made of a high magnetic permeability material, which increases their inductance density. Due to challenges associated with designing and fabricating inductors with the requisite form factor, quality factor, and inductance density, inductors are often discrete components that are integrated with other discrete and integrated electronic elements at the board level.